Hi Carl,
It was a long, long time ago that I met Jimmy. I think that he'd just come back from living in the states. I was a session drummer and my name was mentioned to him and I was given his phone number, and so I did just that.
I was asked round to his house, which was only a few miles from me. Arriving at this huge Victorian mansion in Paisley, which was very impressive, Jimmy met me at the door and invited in.
Now, at that moment in time, which must have been about 25 years ago, I really didn't know very much about him other than he was in The Robin Trower Band and Lulus' band. He told me he was thinking of maybe getting a band together and asked me if I wanted to listen to some songs. Sure, was my reply. At that point in my total naivety, I asked him who was singing and he told me it was him. I said, “Man you've got a really great voice”, as if he needed to hear that from me. He was o.k. about it, though I was a little bit embarrassed, as you might imagine.
During that time I remember him telling me that he was fed up with the States and happy to be back home. And that he'd spent over $1,000,000 on hotel rooms over there.
Anyway we did eventually play somewhere but, you know what it was like hanging out with Jimmy I don't remember any of it. And the last time that I saw him was at a BB king gig in Edinburgh, outside after the show and he looked well. But, if memory serves me well, which it doesn't usually, It wasn't long after that that he was taken from us.
My everlasting memory of him will be, a genuinely nice man, a great player with a great voice.
You know Glasgow has always been a hotbed of great RnB, Blues and Soul artists. Such as Frankie Miller, Maggie Bell, Alex Harvey, Lulu and of course Jimmy Dewar.
I wish you all the best on your project, and anything else you do. You seem like a good guy.
All the best,
Ricky Green.